


can you feel this energy

by shibecafe



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Urban Fantasy, Gen, Taeyong Is A Cat, not fluff not angst, uni au of a sort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-09
Updated: 2019-12-09
Packaged: 2021-02-25 05:41:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,015
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21730993
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shibecafe/pseuds/shibecafe
Summary: Magic means different things to different people. To Jaehyun, it’s his ability to become a wolf, his heightened senses. To Renjun, it’s his powers of persuasion. Taeil says it’s his fine water control, but Sicheng knows that for Taeil it’s really being able to soak Yuta whenever he wants. To Chenle, his magic just means he can move from place to place without notice.
Relationships: Dong Si Cheng | WinWin/Lee Taeyong
Kudos: 21





	can you feel this energy

**Author's Note:**

> hello nctzens... have this wip i abandoned and will never finish :^)
> 
> i wrote this in like 2017 when i barely knew nct so it's Bad and the characterisation is wack but i figured it's 3k so i might as well post it!
> 
> un-beta'd, as all my fics are

Magic means different things to different people. To Jaehyun, it’s his ability to become a wolf, his heightened senses. To Renjun, it’s his powers of persuasion. Taeil says it’s his fine water control, but Sicheng knows that for Taeil it’s really being able to soak Yuta whenever he wants. To Chenle, his magic just means he can move from place to place without notice. 

For Sicheng, though, magic is something he hates in himself. His magic orphaned him. Being a shifter, or a doppelgänger, or whatever people want to call it, is not nearly as cool as others like to think it is. At the age of five, Sicheng’s family travelled from Wenzhou to Seoul for a week. They’d been roaming around Lotte World three days into the trip when a sudden storm rolled in. Of course, unbeknownst to the Dong’s who knew barely a lick of Korean that wasn’t basic conversation or normal tourist-y vocabulary, the sudden storm was a result of a temperamental weather bender. 

Sicheng had been so startled by the thunder and lightning that his gift had manifested finally, later than most gifts appear, when his power reacted to his startled fear and changed him into the visage of a passerby. He got separated from his parents and never saw them again. 

Now, twenty years later, five years out of foster homes, almost graduated from university and totally fluent in Chinese, Korean  _ and  _ Japanese, Dong Sicheng is a completely well adjusted member of the magiked community. Kind of. Admittedly, Sicheng rarely makes use of his powers unless he’s pranking someone or wants to hide, so maybe he isn’t that well adjusted at all. Most of his friends don’t even know he  _ has  _ magic at all, save those couple who’ve startled him so badly that he’s shifted to be a perfect doppelgänger of whoever scared him. That’s only happened around Kun and Jaehyun, luckily, and Sicheng is holding out hope that it doesn’t happen around anyone else. 

Sadly, all the hope in the world can’t stop some things from happening.

* * *

It’s a quiet Thursday afternoon in Sicheng’s dance studio, the calm after the first year dance class. He’s on the floor shuffling through some papers, boring work that Jaemin had helped sort and highlight for him in the morning, when a student bursts through the door. Sicheng half expects it to be Jisung, but when he looks up he’s surprised by Mark Lee. Surprised, because it’s a Thursday, and Mark Lee has classes on Fridays with the other seniors, and because Mark is panting, bent over his knees, looking frazzled and slightly bruised. Plenty bloody, too. 

“Mark? What, why…” Sicheng is left honestly speechless as his student drops his bag and lays on the floor. Papers forgotten, Sicheng rushes over to him. “What on  _ Earth  _ have you gone and done to yourself, Mark Lee?” 

Mark laughs quietly and gestures vaguely at his bag. “My friend… Got himself in trouble.” 

Sicheng has no idea who this friend is, but he reckons they’re not worth being bloodied and bruised over. “Just… Wait here, please. I’m going to get Jaemin.” He can feel a headache forming right behind his eyes as he leaves the practice room to find Jaemin. He hopes Jaemin keeps his necessary healing supplies with him, because if he doesn’t, Sicheng’s going to have to take Mark to someone else, and he’s just not prepared to do that. He feels much too frazzled to deal with anyone other than Jaemin.

He takes an unnecessarily deep breath before knocking on the door to Jaemin’s little closet-turned-office. A second passes before the door opens to reveal a flustered Jaemin.

“Hyung! Is something wrong?” Sicheng thinks he may hear some giggling behind the door, but he dismisses it. 

“Yeah, kind of.” He clears his throat awkwardly and Jaemin sobers immediately. “You’re pretty good at discretion, right? I  _ really  _ need your help with something, but you can’t mention it to anyone.”

Jaemin shifts in place, clearly nervous. Sicheng can’t help but feel bad for making the kid uncomfortable. “It’s nothing illegal, right?” 

“Uh, no. If you do decide to help, you’ll need to bring your… healing stuff, or whatever. Please.” Sicheng watches Jaemin think for a minute. He starts feeling antsy, wanting to get back to Mark and his injuries, until Jaemin says he’ll help. Some tension bleeds out of Sicheng’s shoulders as they make their way back to his classroom. He really doesn’t want to scrub blood out of his nice dance room floors.

Mark sits exactly where Sicheng left him, eyes shut against the fluorescent lights. He looks more sickly than Sicheng thought. His eyes twitch at the thought of someone hitting a guy like Mark. Mark’s a sweet guy, if a bit awkward and weird sometimes, but he’s ultimately harmless and kind. 

With a strangled sound and a short inspection of Mark’s wounds, Jaemin sets to work mixing a couple of different things from his little box as Sicheng puts his head in his hands. His week had been going so well, so peacefully, before today. He spaces out, thinking of all the possible reasons Mark let himself get beaten up for his friend.

A nudge on the leg gains his attention, so he thanks Jaemin for helping and offers the kid a tired grimace. Staying on the floor seems like a great plan, until Mark speaks up. 

“Thanks for everything, hyung.” Mark pauses. “Uh. Can you please grab my phone out of my bag? Front pocket.” 

Too tired to tell Mark to do it himself, Sicheng just pulls the backpack towards himself and unzips the front pocket. He hears Mark say something else before a little black mass jumps out of the bag. Tiredness makes his mind fuzzy, so being startled isn’t hard. The pain that he feels as his body shifts, the light buzzing over his skin as he changes form, is uncomfortably familiar. Mark makes a shocked sound as Sicheng scrabbles back from whatever jumped at him. 

Sicheng opens his eyes to see a black cat, maybe the length of his arm from nose to tail tip, peering up at him curiously with glowing purple eyes. Mark stares at him too, eyes wide and mouth open. Sicheng’s headache gets exponentially worse. 

The questions that pour forth from Mark’s mouth-- such as  _ you actually have powers?  _ and  _ why do you look like Jaemin now? _ \-- exhaust Sicheng completely. 

He shoots Mark a strained smile. “Look, Mark. Yeah, I have powers. I look like Jaemin because I’m a doppelgänger and he’s the first person that my subconscious went to. Please tell me why there’s a cat staring at me?” 

His friend visibly tenses. “Uh, this is the friend that was in trouble?” 

Sicheng blinks. “You got yourself beaten up… for a cat?” 

“...Yes, I did.” It’s obviously not the whole truth, but Sicheng lets it slide. “Hyung, please go back to yourself? You looking like Jaemin is really weird.” 

The familiar buzz starts again and Sicheng is back to himself. He debates whether to ask Mark to keep his secret, or if it’s just implied. He decides to reiterate it. “Please, please,  _ please _ don’t tell anyone about my magic! I’ve kept it under wraps from almost everMark says he doesn’t care, and just blabs to Lucas? If Lucas knows, then  _ everyone  _ knows. Panic starts to fill his mind, until Mark agrees quietly. 

After Mark promises, Sicheng is infinitely more relaxed. The two of them sit in silence, Mark with his cat as he heals, and Sicheng with his annoying paperwork. It feels so weird to just… continue on with normal life after this, but Sicheng just accepts it. In an ideal situation, Sicheng would be at home reading, but this seems to be as good as it’ll get within the circumstances. Sicheng feels slightly guilty for not asking Mark about what got him so battered and bruised, but if Mark wanted to spill, he would. Mark didn’t pry into the details of Sicheng’s magic, so Sicheng will provide Mark with the same courtesy. 

The afternoon feels weird, kind of wrong, and Sicheng attributes that to the fact that Mark is a student in the class he TA’s for and the fact that he probably should have taken him to a proper healer instead of recruiting a first year to do it. He doesn’t dwell on the thought. 

When the sun starts setting, they part ways. Sicheng offers to walk Mark home, but is graciously turned down. He’s kind of glad Mark told him to just go home himself, because he’s totally drained, and doesn’t really want to walk him home, anyway.

With his day over, Sicheng makes his way back to his and Jaehyun’s apartment. After a more than mildly stressful afternoon, Sicheng can only hope that Jaehyun feels mellow enough to let Sicheng be. He can only handle so much in one day. 

The 20 minute walk is peaceful. The clouds turn from pink to orange to purple as the sun lowers, and Sicheng is filled with an odd mix of nostalgia and foreboding, as if capital  _ s _ Something is on the way. Walking around at sunset is always a gamble when ghouls and other magical beings are roaming free, but Sicheng feels a different kind of apprehension tonight. Not necessarily bad, but certainly something that sets his teeth on edge and makes his hair stand on end. 

In the time it takes for Sicheng to walk home, the streetlights start to materialise along the pathway. Yet again, the neighbourhood kids have charmed the lights to change colours. It’s not the first time this month, and probably won’t be the last. If Sicheng were the local council, he’d stop trying to fix the light spheres and just leave them to the kids. The changing colours are very pretty, anyway. 

Distracted by the lights, Sicheng doesn’t notice the shadow jump in front of his feet. He jumps back when something sleek and soft rubs along his leg. Sicheng’s admittedly shitty survival skills are screaming at him to bolt, but his even shittier impulses make him peer down. Vaguely luminescent purple eyes stare back him unblinkingly. 

Oh. It’s Mark’s cat friend. Sicheng squints.

“Why are you here?” The cat blinks. “Are you following me home?” The cat tilts his head before turning and walking forward. Sicheng shakes his head and walks the last 200 metres to his apartment building. The cat - Sicheng really needs to get its name - is sitting in front of the apartment building’s door expectantly, tail swishing. 

Sicheng nudges the door open easily and makes his way to the elevator, only to be disappointed when he sees the  _ Out Of Order  _ sign taped to the doors. He sighs and trudges to the stairs. He makes it up a flight of stairs before realising that his little shadow is nowhere to be seen. A quick glance around the staircase shows his furry companion sitting on the top step already, looking smug. 

“Do I have to run up these stairs?” The cat meows quietly. Sicheng sighs tiredly, but jogs up the stairs. The cat looks very pleased, so Sicheng tries to keep pace as they both run up the stairs. “You need a temporary name. I’ll ask Mark for your name later, but I need something to call you now. How about White? You know, for the irony.” He receives a pleased meow in response.

The two of them make it up the stairs, and Sicheng sighs in relief. Home at last. He pauses, and looks down at newly dubbed White. “You know, my roommate is allergic to cats. He won’t be happy with us.” White looks upset, if that’s possible.

Unlocking the front door is slightly difficult when he’s panting harshly, but Sicheng manages.

He tries to sneak through the living room without drawing Jaehyun’s attention, but fails miserably when he trips on a wayward shoe, resulting in a loud yelp from Sicheng and an unimpressed yowl from White when he steps on the cat’s tail. Sicheng winces and apologises hastily.

“Sicheng? What was that?” 

Sicheng panics and bolts into his room before Jaehyun has the chance to peak out and see White. “It was nothing!” He calls out. He puts White on the bed and tells him to stay put. Sicheng walks to Jaehyun’s room only to see him spread eagle on the bed, butt naked, eating whipped cream. It’s not what he wanted to see, by any means. 

The usual envy at Jaehyun not having to bundle up during winter hits, and as usual Sicheng ignores it. Stupid werewolves, running hotter than everyone else. 

“Can you please, for once, put some clothes on?” Sicheng pleads. Normally, he’d just leave Jaehyun alone, but he would like to spare his new friend from the trauma.

Jaehyun sits up, shameless. “Are you having guests tonight, Mr. Dong?” 

“...No,” He pauses.

“Then no, I cannot put clothes on.” Jaehyun looks so smug as he says it, and Sicheng is hit with the intense urge to throw something at him. He weighs the pros and cons for a second before ultimately deciding that yes, he  _ should  _ throw a shoe at his best friend. He picks up the sneaker from the floor and pegs it at Jaehyun before running back into his room.

Sicheng throws himself into his room before Jaehyun gets to retaliate, laughing but also mildly traumatised despite being used to a naked Jaehyun after 20 years of living together. White sits unbothered on Sicheng’s pillow, head tucked into his side, content. 

With the rest of the evening at Sicheng’s disposal, he resolves to work on lesson plans, then stretch his powers for a while. 

An hour or so of planning passes considerably quickly before it gets mind numbingly boring, the words and moves melting together to make a conglomerated mess of things Sicheng’s brain refuses to process. Once he starts drawing in the margins, he decides it’s definitely time to change task. 

Stretching his powers is a daily chore that really makes Sicheng upset. If it wasn’t necessary to avoid any mishaps, he’d stop doing it and just live his life looking the way he does. But it is necessary, so he gets up from his desk and sits on the bed in front of White. 

“If you tell anyone about this, I’ll leave you outside.” He mumbles. White flicks his tail and shifts to a better position to see what’s happening. “I’ll change my hair today. What colour? Pink? Purple? Blue? Red? Black? Go back to light brown?” White perks up at the mention of light brown, so that’s what Sicheng goes with. He wonders why he’s letting a cat choose his hair colour, but it’s by far one of the  _ less  _ weird things he’s taken the opinion of.

The change isn’t painful, it really only feels like a vibrating sensation along his skin, but it’s enough of a feeling to make Sicheng want to scratch. His scalp tingles as the molecules in his hair and head shift and change. Sicheng looks in the mirror and is happy with the result. Much lighter than his previous hair colour, but not too close to blond. 

Satisfaction feels good, and so does getting the itch to change out of his system. The worst thing in regards to his magic is the  _ urge  _ to shift that hits him every few days. The compulsion hit him near the end of his planning session despite his change into Jaemin earlier in the day. Over the years, he’s found that unintentional shifts never satisfy his magic, which Sicheng finds infinitely infuriating. 

His magic settles now, though. Maybe now he can exist in peace. 

The cat rubs his head against Sicheng’s arm and meows. “Ah, your name. I really need to ask Mark.” He frowns. Instagram is probably not the best place to ask Mark for his cat’s name, but it’s all Sicheng has. 

**winwin96** mark, your cat followed me home.   
i’ll bring him to you tomorrow but for now i need   
to know his name

**marklee** uhhh his name is taeyong!!!!!   
i’m sorry he followed you home hahaha he’s  
never done that to anyone before do you want  
me to come get him

Sicheng is surprised and vaguely worried by Mark’s lack of urgency, but maybe Mark really doesn’t think it’s a big deal. “Taeyong.” The cat seems to smile. “If Mark comes to get you, will you leave?” Taeyong turns away and burrows back into Sicheng’s pillows. That’s enough of an answer.

**winwin96** he doesnt look like he’ll go anywhere  
if you try to take him so i’ll just bring him to class  
tomorrow for you.

Sicheng scratches Taeyong behind the ears and moves back to his desk, pen in hand. Just as he puts his pen to paper, his door opens and Jaehyun sticks his head in. Sicheng freezes, Jaehyun narrows his eyes. They stare at each other silently. Sicheng notices that Jaehyun is now dressed and made up. 

“You changed your hair.” Jaehyun sniffs, and proceeds to sneeze like a maniac. “Have you been around a  _ cat _ ?” Sicheng casts a glance towards Taeyong.

“I may or may not have brought a cat home.” 

Jaehyun stares. “Sicheng, what the hell.” He sneezes again. “Dude, you’re gonna kill me.”

Sicheng raises an eyebrow. “You won’t actually die, idiot. Just stay away from my room, I won’t let him go anywhere. I’m taking him back to Mark tomorrow, anyway, so don’t be dramatic.” Taeyong jumps onto the desk, and Sicheng scratches him behind the ears. The cat is really quite cute, if he ignores the inconvenience.

“I will die, and it will be all your fault, Dong Sicheng! I’m leaving now. Please don’t let the cat anywhere else. See you… whenever.” Jaehyun grins, sneezes again, and leaves. 

It feels like Sicheng’s brain has just been through a blender. Taeyong sits on top of Sicheng’s paperwork, and Sicheng decides it’s time to just give up for tonight. He can deal with the cat, and everything else, in the morning.

**Author's Note:**

> tell me your thoughts in the comments, or if you’re shy, you can find me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/shibecafes), tumblr and [curiouscat](https://curiouscat.me/nezha)!!!


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